Fall from grace

The book is inspired by the real-life story of a disgraced former general.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Some people present at the funeral mourn the governor's death while others hold up a banner that reads: "Hell welcomes you!"

"I lived in the same neighborhood as Gu, and I was shocked to hear he had embezzled so much money," Zhou says of the reason behind his novel.

"I want to write about officials and how they become corrupt."

Born in 1952, Zhou joined the PLA at age 18. He started his literary forays in the 1980s, and several of his works have been translated into English, French and German.

There are many officials who stick to their principles and fight corruption in their own ways and it is a tough road for those who want to stay honest all the time, says Zhou.

Through the novel, he wanted to get across the message of cautious optimistic about the outcome of the ongoing anti-graft campaign in China, he says.

In 1993, a film adapted from his novel Sesame Oil Mill on the Banks won the Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear Award.

In 2008, The Scenery of the Lake and Mountain, his novel about farmers in rural China's transforming landscape, won the country's top Mao Dun Literature Prize.

His service in the army for 45 years earned Zhou many opportunities to meet government officials at all levels, from county leaders to provincial governors.

Speaking at the book launch in Beijing, he says that his new book is based on real-life materials gathered earlier.

"Qu Zhong Ren Zai touches some dark sides of officialdom," says Zhou.

"But it's meaningless if an author holds back. I want readers to know how difficult it is to live in that world through Ouyang's character."

Li Jingze, a literary critic and vice-chairman of Chinese Writers Association, says: "There's news about corrupt officials almost every week, and the officials we see on TV have already been branded as the 'bad guys.'"

By presenting the different shades of his lead character in the new book, Zhou has sought to bring his readers a more holistic view of officials who Li says have been "stereotyped by media".